Home | Seaside & Country Homes | Applicants | Landlords | Contact Us | Accessibility
How to use and access this website.
We have taken some very important steps to ensure that the information on this site can be accessed in a variety of ways: text, graphics, audio, and PDF files. All key information is represented as plain text. We have also tried to ensure that all the links are self-explanatory and show clearly where they lead or what they are for. Please use the sub-menu to help you:
These are short cut commands you can use instead of your mouse. They are a quick way to access content but are not supported by all browsers, and sometimes interfere with other screen reading software. To keep such potential disruptions to a minimum we have only used one access key:
- Go to the Skip Menu = Alt + S > rtn
The Skip Menu is aimed at people who use screen readers and provides a quick way to skip to the main content on each page, the navigational menus, and the accessibility page.
How they work: hold down the Alt key and the number then release them and press the Return key. For Apple Mac computers hold down the Ctrl key and then press the letter.
As part of the development of the website we are considering the Browsealoud software. If included, this could enable people to listen to the website content instead of reading it.
No matter what page of the housingmoves website you are viewing you will be able to find out where you are by looking at the breadcrumb trail underneath the main menu at the top of the page. Some extra navigation options have also been provided at the foot of the page along with a "Top" link which automatically takes you back to the top of the web page.
We have tested the housingmoves website in the following browsers (on PC and Mac).
- Internet Explorer (PC) versions: 5, 6 and 7.0.5730.13
- Opera (PC) version: 9.5
- Firefox (PC) version: 2.0.0.12
- Firefox (Mac) version: 2.0.0.14
- Safari (PC) version: 3.1.1
- Safari (Mac) version: 3.1.1
Although colour contrast can appear different depending on the type of monitor used, the colours of the text in the main navigation and in the Quick Links sub-menu (in particular) have been used because they are of a high contrast with their background. This makes it easier for people to read who may have difficulties seeing text and background colours with a lower contrast or similar tones. The brightness of your screen may also affect how the colours are displayed; please refer to your monitor's user manual if you think it needs adjusting or consider altering the settings within your computer's control panel.
If you would like to change the size of the text on this website you can use your browser software (Internet Explorer, or Firefox, for example).
- With your browser open, hold down the Ctrl key and then press the + or - keys on your keyboard in order to increase or decrease the size of text. This works for many types of browser.
- You can also use the View option in many browsers: choose View, then Text Size, and then pick whichever size you feel appropriate.
- To control other aspects of how the website is displayed you can also use the Tools option in many browsers: choose Tools, then Internet Options - this makes a pop-up box appear. On the General tab you will find other options relating to colours, languages, fonts and accessibility.
- You can change your screen resolution by going to the Control Panel of your computer or adjusting other settings relating to monitors and colour management
The only files for download on this website are in portable document format (PDF). You will need PDF reader software such as Adobe Acrobat Reader in order to view these documents and is freely available from the Adobe website.
Viewers with visual difficulties may find it useful to investigate components that improve the accessibility of Acrobat documents at the Adobe Accessibility Resource Centre.
We are currently developing this site to include alternative languages (Welsh for example). These will appear in the near future and will help make this site even more accessible.
There are no Flash files for download or presentation - all key content has been included in plain text format and within the PDF files.
HTML and CSS code have been used because this allows the website to be downloaded more quickly. Some browsers will also allow you to turn off the CSS code; this is useful if you don't need or want to see the graphics or picture elements of the website. Doing this won't prevent you from accessing the information as the CSS code only controls how the information is displayed e.g. the colours of the text and where it is located on the page.
There are many different screen resolutions at which to view a website: each resolution displays the website in a slightly different way, sometimes the text might appear larger or smaller, for example, depending on your screen's specific resolution. The housingmoves website is therefore not designed with any one screen resolution in mind, but has been tested at the following resolutions and displays the main navigation and sub-navigation (when the website first loads) within a browser window of 800 x 600 pixels:
- 1280 x 800
- 1024 x 768
- 800 x 600
The site map includes a list of all the sections on this website.
Where possible and appropriate we have aimed to follow and incorporate the WCAG 1.0 recommendations (in an attempt to achieve the Double A rating), as established by W3C. We have also utilised the government guidelines as defined in the COI document TG102.